Killer drones get stealthy

Today’s killer drones are sitting ducks. Loud, slow-moving, and simple to spot, any air defence more potent than a militant with an AK is liable to take one of the robotic planes down.

But the next generation of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) won’t be the airborne equivalent of fish in a barrel. They’ll fly faster and higher than the current drone crop. And they’ll be somewhat stealthy, as well.

Take the Avenger UCAV, unveiled last year by General Atomic Aeronautical Systems, the company behind the Predator and Reaper drones. With a 21.5-metre long fuselage and 20-metre wingspan, the Avenger is capable of staying in the air for up to 20 hours, and operating at up to 50,000 feet. Powered by a 2,200kg thrust Pratt & Whitney PW545B jet engine, it can fly at over 400 knots — 50 percent faster than the turboprop-powered Reaper unmanned plane, and more than three times as quick as the Predator.

General Atomics says the first Avenger is now flying two to three times a week. “Over the past 15-plus months, only one launch has been cancelled due to parts and/or maintenance,” the company notes in a statement. A second and third Avenger are now in production. It’ll be a little longer than the first -- 13.4 metres -- and able to haul a 2700kg payload. That’s a 50 percent improvement over what the Reaper can carry.

Most importantly, perhaps, is the shape of the Avenger. It’s designed to let radar signals away, without spotting the jet-powered drone. It’s not a full-blown stealth design, as Lew Page notes: there’s still a radar-catching sensor or two hanging from the undercarriage. But compared to the Reaper, which has missiles and bombs draped off of the wings, it’s a major step in the stealth direction.

But unlike the Avenger, the £141 million Taranis hasn’t flown yet, and won’t head into the skies until 2011. That’s about a year behind schedule. It’s also unclear how much appetite the UK Ministry of Defence really has for the stealthy UCAV, even if its those test flights go perfectly. “Any development and acquisition schedule now depends on the outcome” of a high-level strategic review, Aviation Week observes.

Eventually, finding the cash needed to manufacture these stealth drones may be even harder than spotting these UCAVs in the sky.

Edited by Olivia Solon

Comments

I don't think much research was done with this article, since anyone who knows how to use Google or Wikipedia can find out the Predator does not fly near the ground unless performing tests or basic maneuvers. While in combat, the first to latest design flies at between 20-50 thousand feet, which I doubt makes them easy to spot or "sitting ducks". At that height, it's near impossible to spot a passenger plane travelling overhead, much less an unmanned craft at less than half the size. Also, unless I'm mistaken, the company is called General Atomics, not General Atomic.